


Meet the Plastics: Gretchen's POV

by PerfectlyLoudBouquet2



Category: Mean Girls (2004), Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: Am I the only person who ships Cady and Gretchen?, F/F, I can't be, Right?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 11:43:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20435453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerfectlyLoudBouquet2/pseuds/PerfectlyLoudBouquet2
Summary: In the Mean Girls boot that definitely doesn’t exist, there’s a moment during Meet the Plastics where Regina tells Cady “You’re like really pretty” and Gretchen looks absolutely terrified.  This is my guess as to why.





	Meet the Plastics: Gretchen's POV

“Who’s that over there?” Cady asked, wandering over towards the lunch table. Damian pulled her back with flair and pressed her face against his chest.

“Don’t look at them, just don’t!”

She pushed him away and half-listened as he and Janis explained who the three ethereal beings across the lunchroom were. The majority of her attention was spent focusing on the gorgeous brunette who was glued to her phone, but the information she got from Janis and Damian was essentially:

Regina – head blonde in the middle, rules the school with an iron, moisturized fist  
Karen – the other blonde, too dumb for words  
Gretchen – the brunette, Regina’s eyes and ears

Obviously, her newfound friends were telling her that these girls were bad news. So she should just ignore them, right? Good plan. Ignore the impossibly pretty girls, especially the brown-haired one who made her heart race, for the next two years and then – 

“Why don’t I know you?”

Cady stopped short. On her way to Janis and Damian’s table, she had been stopped by the head blonde – er, Regina. Her name was Regina. The trio was staring at her expectantly. For a minute, Cady imagined that this must be what facing Cerberus must feel like.

“Uh, I’m new here.”

“What?”

Cady risked a glance at Gretchen, but she was back to being engrossed in her phone.

“I’m new. I was raised in Africa.”

“Shut up. Shut up!”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You’re like really pretty.”

That got Gretchen’s attention. For a moment, a memory flashed through Gretchen’s mind.

It had happened years earlier, after the Janis incident, but before Gretchen had fully usurped Janis’s role as ‘Regina’s best friend’. Gretchen, Regina, and newest member of the group Karen had gone to a school soccer game to support Aaron, Regina’s soon-to-be boyfriend. 

Neither Regina nor Karen seemed particularly thrilled to be there – sports bored Regina and Karen didn’t understand any of the rules. But Gretchen had gotten distracted, watching the girls’ team on a neighboring field. Look, it’s not her fault she has a thing for sweaty girls with ponytails. And it’s not her fault she’s a Disaster Lesbian, doomed to crush on any girl who makes eye contact with her for more than .5 seconds. But it is her fault she got caught.

She could feel Regina staring at her and she quickly diverted her attention back to the boy’s team. But it was too late.

“She’s like really pretty,” Regina said in her slow drawling tone, eyes on one of the soccer girls. Gretchen’s breath caught. Was this really happening? Was Regina offering her an olive branch, saying ‘it’s okay to stare at girls in my presence’? Or was she saying ‘I’ll let you get away with this once, but never again’? Gretchen decided to test the waters.

“Uh, I guess so.”

“So you agree? You think she’s really pretty?” Gretchen glanced over at Regina and saw that she was staring directly at her with a half-smile on her face.

Gretchen’s stomach turned. She’d been tricked. She felt like prey.

Fortunately, she hadn’t been required to respond because Aaron had scored a goal and Karen began chanting his name. When Regina finally turned her eyes away, Karen snuck her hand into Gretchen’s, but it was too late to make her feel better.

She knew the rules now.

Mentally returning to the table, Gretchen heard the red-haired girl say “Thanks!” in a chipper and innocent tone. She couldn’t look away as she watched history repeat itself.

“So you agree? You think you’re really pretty?” 

Before the girl could answer, Regina stood up and grabbed her arm. 

“Oh my gosh, I love your bracelet. Where did you get it?”

The girl’s answer barely registered in Gretchen’s head. The innocence in her tone had struck a chord and reminded Gretchen of better times in her life. She had to help this girl out.

Before she could second-guess her actions, she jumped up and touched the girl’s arm as well. “I think it looks fetch!”

Regina’s head swiveled sharply, revealing a death glare. “What is ‘fetch’?” she snapped.

Gretchen felt herself regretting every choice she’d ever made between birth and this moment. “It’s slang,” she managed to say as she sunk back into her chair. “From England.”

Karen asked the new girl something about whether or not there were tigers in Africa as Gretchen buried herself back into her phone. Someone had commented on a post of the three of them, saying they looked ‘impossibly flawless’. She showed it to Regina, who seemed bored, which was better than looking like she wanted to kill her. Regina got up and walked over to the new girl. Gretchen seized this opportunity to show the comment to Karen.

“You’re really gonna get noticed around here,” she heard Regina say, sitting down on the other side of the table. “Can you give us some privacy?”

The new girl wandered away (with an admittedly very cute butt) and Regina spun to face Gretchen and Karen. “I think we should make Cady an honorary plastic.”

At first, Gretchen was happy about this decision. Cady was extremely cute. Sure, she could never date her (not with Regina in charge). But Regina couldn’t kick her out for staring . . . she was pretty sure. She could be subtle.

But then she caught Regina’s eye and saw the villainous glint in them. She knew. Somehow. She knew that Gretchen thought Cady was cute. It was a trap. Wasn’t it? Or did she want the new girl for a different reason? She glanced over Regina’s shoulder and her stomach knotted. She was going to replace her! She was going to replace her like how Regina had chosen Gretchen to replace Janis.

‘But would that really be such a bad thing?’ her mind argued.

‘Yes!’ she argued back. ‘Go back to being a nobody? I don’t think so.’

“I like her!” Karen said. “I think she’s nice.”

“I think . . . it’s your call, Regina,” Gretchen said. Regina smirked.

“I figured you would say that.” She turned back around to face Cady and stood up. “Right.”

Cady turned to face her and straightened her posture, matching Regina’s.

“How would you like to have lunch with us this week?”

Cady’s eyes flickered over to where Janis and Damian were watching in confusion and started to protest. “Oh, it’s okay – “

“No need to thank us,” Regina said, cutting her off. She leveled Cady with a stare. “We don’t do this every day.”

Cady was about to voice her concerns again, somehow oblivious to Regina’s nonverbal warnings. Desperate to save the newbie, Gretchen rushed forward. 

“You’re new and you don’t know things,” she explained. Cady’s brow furrowed, but Gretchen soldiered on. “You need good friends who can tell you what to think!”

She was about to tell Cady about the time Regina had convinced her that she didn’t look good in hoop earrings (even though she was still pretty sure she did) when Karen jumped in.

“On Wednesdays, we wear pink!” She slung an arm around Cady’s shoulder. The girl looked adorably confused. She was in way over her head.

‘She wouldn’t last a week underneath Regina,’ Gretchen thought. ‘I can’t believe I thought she was a threat.’

The trio gathered their trays as Cady did her best to straighten out her clothes and her posture. Gretchen watched her do it and almost rolled her eyes. ‘Like straightening your shirt will cancel out wearing plaid, a vest, and jeans. She’s so lucky we found her.’

Regina walked past her without a second glance. Karen shot her a smile and followed. Gretchen held back a few steps and nudged Cady’s shoulder, happy to throw the new girl a bone.

“Come sit with us tomorrow!” she sing-songed. “It’ll be fetch!”

With a wink and a foot-pop, she disappeared after her friends, leaving Cady with stomach butterflies and growing concern. She had no idea what she’d just gotten herself into.


End file.
